Reportedly 29 people died on Monday, at Lake Victoria in Uganda after a cruise boat carrying party revelers capsized and sank, the Uganda police confirmed.
The overcrowded music and booze filled party boat was carrying around 100 people and most of them were heavily drunk when the boat slammed by powerful waves, tilted and sank. The survivors described the horrible and pathetic moments of that time.
The tragedy occurred hundreds of feet off shore as the boat was en route from one beach to another in Mukono district near the capital Kampala. The owners of the boat did not have a license to operate and overloaded the boat well past the point of being safe.
Early on Sunday a police helicopter hovered low over the spot where the boat sank as a team of divers searched for bodies under calm waters.A marine unit has rescued 26 people, and searches are ongoing to find more passengers. Around 50 are still missing.
The police said that many well-known people were on the boat too.
“The boat was in poor condition, had been grounded for some time and did not have a valid licence to operate,” Ganyana said.
“They were shouting ‘Help us! Help us!’ and the boat was sinking very quickly,” saying this Sam Tukei added “By the time the police came we had saved many people.”
Lake Victoria sees regular accidents, often involving overcrowded vessels.
“The boat was overloaded and secondly there was bad weather,” said Deputy police spokesman Patrick Onyango told Reuters news agency.
East Africa’s major lakes including Lake Victoria, boat accidents are increasingly common which is surrounded by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
> Puza Sarker Snigdha
Numerous Dead After Uganda Party Boat Sank : Lake Victoria disaster
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